When comparing Amnesia: The Dark Descent vs Dungeons of Dredmor, the Slant community recommends Amnesia: The Dark Descent for most people. In the question“What are the best games on Linux?”Amnesia: The Dark Descent is ranked 19th while Dungeons of Dredmor is ranked 53rd. The most important reason people chose Amnesia: The Dark Descent is:

Amnesia offers immersive puzzles to the player by creating interaction that comes natural to the player. When a door needs opened, the player must pull their mouse towards them to actually open the door, same goes for drawers as well. It is through these interactions that the player can feel as if they are actually manipulating these objects instead of just pointing and clicking like so many other puzzle games.

Pros

Pro

Immersive puzzle solving

Amnesia offers immersive puzzles to the player by creating interaction that comes natural to the player. When a door needs opened, the player must pull their mouse towards them to actually open the door, same goes for drawers as well. It is through these interactions that the player can feel as if they are actually manipulating these objects instead of just pointing and clicking like so many other puzzle games.

Pro

Excellent, unnerving atmosphere

Much of the game is inspired by Lovecraftian horror wherein the player is constantly assaulted with their sanity being eroded as they try to regain their memories. Monster lurk within the game that are quite frightening and the whole game is sparsely lit with constant sounds surrounding them that could be eluding to their next encounter.

Pro

Epitome of horror, but that's not all

The game manages to keep you tense at all times, but there's more. Even if the monster wasn't there, this would be a great game to walk around, solve puzzles, and read the letters. The atmosphere is just very well crafted.

Pro

Tons of extra stories

Users can download and install mods/stories created by other users, which can extend the gameplay of the game by quite a lot. Being that these are custom stories, being able to find one that appeals to the player should be pretty simple enough. A good comparison of the top available stories can be found here.

Pro

Incredible use of sound effects

As has been mentioned, the atmosphere is incredible, and I was scared out of my mind the whole time. There's mostly silence. A floorboard creaks, a chain rattles, the shuffling of your feet on the floor, it all serves to take your experience to new, terrifying heights.

Pro

Combines punishing roguelike game mechanics with silly and satirical humor

The core mechanics of Dungeons of Dredmor are roguelike, but added on top of that is a silly humor that creates and endearing atmosphere.

Pro

Configurable difficulty accommodates both casual and hardcore play

In addition to basic difficulty adjustment, the player can choose whether death is permanent (in classic roguelike style) or merely resets the current level. There is also a mode called "No Time to Grind" where experience points are increased from all sources, but in compensation, levels are smaller.

Pro

Several community mods were bundled as a free official expansion pack

In a testament to the quality of the Dungeons of Dredmor modding community, one official expansion pack consists almost entirely of user-created content. It was released for free, since they're not total capitalist jerks.

Pro

Skill-based class system improves replay value

A character has seven selected skills, which effectively define that character's class: they have access to every skill selected, and no others. The base game contains dozens of skills, with many more available through both mods and official expansions.

Cons

Con

Puzzles tend to be easily solved

Sadly the core of the game is the puzzle aspect but they tend to be easily enough solved, which makes for a bit of a let down for players who are used to or looking for difficult gameplay.

Con

Minor interface issues

The interface feels very unintuitive with aspects such as having to change the default action feeling overly complicated and unecissary.